Slumdog Millionaire Leads 2009 Golden Globe Winners

After a year off, the Golden Globe winners could accept their awards in person this time around. With the Golden Globes party back on, it was as if the Golden Globes weren't canceled due to a strike and had Access Hollywood hosts announce the winners last year. This year, the Golden Globes took their traditional place as an awards show that tries to precursor the Oscars. If that is the case, then Slumdog Millionaire is even more solidified as an Oscar winner than ever, while the acting races are more up in the air than ever.

Throughout the pre-Oscar races, Slumdog Millionaire has built up more and more of a big lead for Best Picture and Director. Once again, Slumdog Millionaire easily walked away with those prizes for the film and director Danny Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire also won the Golden Globes for Best Score and Screenplay.

Easily winning the most Golden Globes for movies, Slumdog Millionaire is now becoming harder and harder to unseat as Oscar nominations approach. Other rivals like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, Frost/Nixon and Doubt didn't even have one Golden Globe winner.

With Slumdog Millionaire increasing its lead in the picture race, it is becoming clearer that the most suspense on Oscar night will come from the acting races. But even the acting awards were producing the same old pre-Oscar results heading into the Globes, with Sean Penn, Heath Ledger and Penelope Cruz winning most of them.

While Heath Ledger picked up his expected posthumous Golden Globe, the other acting races for the Drama category were filled with upsets. Kate Winslet pulled off two of them, first by upsetting Penelope Cruz in Best Supporting Actress for The Reader.

Winslet then beat out Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway for Best Actress for Revolutionary Road, which drove Winslet to tears as she gave her speech. The two wins boost Winslet up just as she was starting to fade back in both races, giving fresh hope for a long-awaited first Oscar win.

Mickey Rourke also pulled a semi-stunner, as his big comeback for The Wrestler defeated favorite Sean Penn for Best Actor. Rourke solidified his likely Oscar nomination and broke Penn's series of pre-Oscar wins.

The comedy Golden Globes, which have less of an impact on the Oscar race this year, had Vicky Christina Barcelona winning for Best Comedy, Colin Farrell pulling an upset for Best Actor in In Bruges, and Oscar contender Sally Hawkins winning Best Actress for Happy-Go-Lucky.

In the TV categories, John Adams and 30 Rock, as usual, led the way with four and three Golden Globes, respectively. Mad Men took its second straight Golden Globe for Best Drama. Gabriel Byrne and Anna Paquin won Best Actor and Actress Drama for HBO's In Treatment and True Blood.

Sources

Washington Post- "List of winners of the Golden Globe Awards" www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/12/AR2009011200395.html

The Australian- "Kate Winslet receives two Golden Globe awards" www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24903979-15803,00.html